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Sunday, September 13, 2009

Clean up the house (tidy, dust, hide crap, vacuum/mop floors, do dishes, etc.)

Grocery shop

Meet extended family for dinner 45 minutes from home (good food, but VERY noisy, and no shades on the windows with sun glaring in)

Attend h.s. football game near (sorta) dinner site (they lost 47-7, and the cheerleaders did it again, this time using the same cheer as mentioned in the previous post, but this time they did it during the prep time for a kickoff...no quarterback on the field, idiots)

Shift belongings of one set of family members from local rellies to our car

Drive home trying to stay awake and make coherent conversation

Make yet MORE semi-coherent conversation till we all dropped from exhaustion at midnight

Saturday:

Find out that the U2 show is not sold out, really; also it costs $45 to park near the concert venue

R & B decide to go to the concert with us

Use Google maps to find restaurant sort of near venue; contact the rest of the people we're going to with and set meet-up time of 4:30 at restaurant

Leave for concert (which starts at 7) around 2:30.

Stop at Beast's dad's to drop off this week's meds and clean laundry

Stop at bank for money

Get slowed down by traffic

Receive first call from Katherine at 4:30; they are at restaurant. She is not happy that we'll be late, but so is Alan's brother-in-law

Arrive at parking lot and use the porta-potty. Receive second call from Katherine informing us that Alan's bro is there (we are now officially 30 minutes late for the meet-up time at the restaurant)

Start walking. There is no direct way to the restaurant, so we have a tour of much of the lakefront as we truck through the early arrivals for the concert.

Katherine calls again at about 5:20. I can barely speak we are walking so fast. "We're on our way, moving as fast as we can!" She responds, "It's VERY busy here!"

Finally, at 5:30 we call--still not at restaurant--and ask if it's really likely that we'll get fed and back out in time for a 7:00 show including a the 40-minute walk back to the venue. No. Katherine, Alan and S meet us and we find a Jimmy John's instead; they run out of bread as we reach the counter to order

Every restaurant we pass is jammed, so we throw in the towel and go back to the stadium to eat, arriving at about 6:30. Massive money is spent buying hot dogs and brats

After an hour, U2 takes the stage. Aside from some sound/balance issues, they are excellent for 2+ hours. I love these guys

Push out of stadium and stream toward parking lot

Finally get to the highway home at about 12:15

Sunday:

Arrive home after an hour of driving through massive fogbanks

Sparky goes immediately to bed but the rest of us have a short discussion about the concert

Bed around 3 a.m.

I'm up by 8

James arrives at 12:30

I cook tacos

We have a wonderfully relaxed afternoon watching football, talking, eating, and hanging out

James leaves

The rest of us head to church for our youth group meeting

...which goes pretty well

Home again: Beast watches Packers/Bears game, Sparky goes to bed, the rest of us stay in the kitchen talking till halftime

B & R head to bed; I head to bed; everyone is beyond exhausted; even Beast comes to bed relatively early

Monday:

I'm up at 6:30

Sparky leaves for school at 7:30

I leave to volunteer at his school library at about 7:50

Return home at 9:30

We pack everyone into the car--again--and drive to the Middle-Sized City to the Northeast to drop R & B at bus station (easier than driving back down to GIANT City Directly to the East)

Drive back in time for Beast to drop me off for a massage at 2

Beast picks me up and we go to Sparky's JV football game (they lose again)

We go to dinner

...and come home to a normal house

We have massive stuff to do this week too, but at least there are a few days before the next round of company arrives. And they won't stay with us, so the house doesn't have to get cleaned again for awhile. Thank God.